1 a person who continues to live, despite nearly dying:
- He was the sole (= only) survivor of the plane crash.
- She's a cancer survivor/a survivor of cancer.
2 a person who is able to continue living their life successfully despite experiencing
difficulties:
- He's one of life's survivors.
3 US
A person's survivors are the members of his or her family who continue to live after he or
she has died.
We hope it suffices to say that we are not going to endorse any particular definition of the word. For some of our members, 'survivor' really may refer, at least in part, to having survived the 'system' as some have legitimately had bad experiences therein that they feel have served only to traumatize or even physically harm them. For others, 'survivor' will mean that they've survived extreme emotional states, extreme trauma in their personal lives, and/or extreme states of hopelessness. For some that may refer to day-to-day survival. Still others may have yet another interpretation. We will leave that to each member to decide.
Interestingly, some have even complained that the word 'survivor' sets the bar too low - that to simply survive rather than to florish is depressing in and of itself. To that, we can only suggest that those individuals look around at the so-called survivor community. We believe that they will see some of the most vibrant, creative, innovative people to be seen for survival often gives birth to wisdom, insight, and vision.
What we do feel comfortable saying on behalf of all of our members is that we've all survived difficult and extreme situations, and in surviving those situations, we have grown. Eventually, each of us has followed a path that has lead us to work with people who are suffering and struggling in ways that are sometimes much like the ways we have suffered and struggled. We do not believe the 'system' is inherently bad or ill-intentioned or we wouldn't be working in it. In fact, we know that the 'system' can do wonderful things as many of us have wonderful co-workers and have wittnessed wonderful things happening. Ultimately, we believe there is hope for everyone to be a 'survivor,' and for the 'system' and for those with whom we work to benefit from our 'survival.'
